Video games and computer games are well known in the art. Video games appear in many hardware platforms and in many software varieties. Video arcade games may be special devices for playing only one application program or game program while home video game devices generally accept cartridges to allow the user to select from a library of cartridges containing game application software. Such home video game machines and software are produced by such manufacturers as Nintendo.RTM., Sega.RTM., Atari.RTM., Sony, and the like. Computer video games are also popular in which a personal computer is used as the hardware platform and application game software is loaded via floppy disk or CD-ROM.
Multi-user video game playing is also known in the art. Many of the game platforms allow two players to compete or cooperate in a game environment on a single hardware platform. Multiple platform, multiple player game environments are also known in which two hardware platforms are linked by a dedicated wire to allow two players to communicate in a common game environment. Nintendo.RTM. GameBoy.RTM. systems are an example of a wired connection in which two GameBoy.RTM. units may be connected by a wire so two user can play in a common game together.
A multiple user game playing network is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,572,509 wherein a video arcade uses a dedicated, high-speed communications channel to link special arcade game stations to a control station for downloading of video game application software to allow several users to play together. This patent is limited in its use of a high-bandwidth channel and special hardware to allow a limited number of users at any given location. It lacks the ability to service a large number of subscribers distributed over a large area using limited bandwidth and within an unreliable communication environment.
Delivery of video and audio services via cables from a cable service provider to a residence is also known in the art as cable television. In this instance, a cable company is the source of audio and video signals at a location known as a headend, and the cables carrying the RF modulated audio and video services are delivered to customer sites. At selected places along the cable network amplifiers are used to boost the RF signals to compensate for the signal losses over long cable runs. One type of service envisioned for the cable TV market is the one-way downloading of video game software from a headend location. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,909 describes the downloading of video game application software over a wired communication network such as a cable TV network.
There is a need in the art for the delivery of multiple player, multiple game playing services to cable subscribers which provides real time two way communications in an uncertain communications medium. There is a further need in the art for the ability of multiple cable subscribers to play video games or the like in a multi-user game environment over a cable network. There is a further need in the art to provide a game playing hardware and software platform for game developers for multi-user game environments.